Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-11-25


the deputies was watching him. but just at
that moment the reporter had stopped to look
in the cell. Linsg, who had been lying down.
partially raised himself in his bunk and placed
something between his lips. 1t looked like a
cigar, and when Lingg renched over tor the
candle and placed it to his mouth his only OBJ
server supposed he was merely about to take n
smoke. A moment later the explosion dis
pellei that thought.
For moment everybody in the jail stood
was the fear that the next moment the walls
would come toppling over and bury ull the in
mates beneath the ruins. But no crash OF fall
ing walls followed the explosion, and the panic
was soon over. Jailer Folz was the first to act,
and was at hand when O'Nell recovered him.
self ana flung open Linsgs door. Through the
ribbons of smoke it could be seen that the
little cell was in great disorder Books and pa
pers were scattered about, the cXtinguished
candle lay under the table, the blankets had
fallen from tho cot, and upon the floor and
clinging to the walls and furniture We're pulpY
and hard substances, the nature of which was
not ut the moment apparent
The prisoner himself lay quietly upon his
right side. with both hands hanging though
in lnnguor over tho side of the cot Eolz and
ONell seized him and drew him into the light
head fell on his breast while from his mouth,
if the black and shnpelcss orce could still
bear the name, there poured d torrent of blood.
The nature of tho wound was open evidence
of its method OF iniction. The desperate man
had discharged an explosive i'll his mouth, with
the design, doubtless, of blowing his head from
purpose, but had succeeded in accomplishing
an injury which, had it not ended i'll death
would hnve left him IL living lnonstrosity.
Many among the men VINO gnzed upon the dy-
ing anarchist had witnessed death and dis
fguraron i'll almost every form, but recoiled at
this horror. Lnggs entire lower jaw, the up
per bony palate, the teeth, tongue, glands, and
oil the lower structure of his head, excepting
only the outer tlesh hal been blown out
through his lips, SO that his face from his ewes
down hung like n hideous sack upon which his
nose was q shapeless protubernnce. 1t was
teeth blood bones, and flesh upon which the
jailers trod and which they saw upon the walls
and furniture.
In the rush OF dischnrging matter the lips
had been slit and distended SO that they hung
i'll thick, welted flaps thut stirred Us the blood
and air from the lungs gushed through them.
More friShtful STILL to the men who brought the
first relief he was conscious and looking up
into their fnces groaned deeply.
Lifting him as tenderly as they might in tho
excitement, they carried him from the cage,
out of the cell hail, through tho office to the
bathroom, where Il cot was improvised. The
surgeons promptly washed out tho blood
clothed cavity that was once u mouth, took up
and tied several of the arteries. applied anti
septic treatment to the torn surface, enveloped
the whole i'll bandaSes, and lny the hopelessly
injured man back to die
1t was perhaps i'll keeping with his character
that Lingg should face death SO horrible with
cOmpoSure and retain consciousness and per-
ception of passing events until tho drugs with
which the surgeons filled his veins oyerc anne
him. Shortly after the dressing of his wounds
aud as he did SO it noticed for the first
time that his left hand was shattered. The
thumb was broken and the flesh of his fingers
lacerated.
A writing block was held for him, and with q
pencil in his right hand he wrote the following
"Besser aniehnen am ltuecken. Wenn ich
liege knnn ch NIGHT athmen" Better bolster
up my back when | lie down cannot brenthe.)
With this request the surgeons complied,
and raised him INTO sitting posture Time
and again he signed for water and this was ad-
ministered him through long rubber tube
thrust into his throat.
The instrument with which ;ncg wrought
his destruction was u percussion cap. III each
of the four bombs found in his cell some DAYS
before he killed himself there was ono OF these
caps. An object SO small could be concealed
closest examination. The cap consists merely
OF copper shell an eighth of an inch in diam
eter and three-quarters of an inch long hnlf
filled with illuminate of mercury, and with IL
ject explodes with the detonation of gun, and
with what violence Lingg's wounds attest
After the surgeons had dressed his gaping
wounds Lingg was propped up on rough couch
was thrown over him The surgeons had
stopped the profuse flow OF blood, but expressed
no hope for his recovery. Hypodernlic injec-
tons were made occasionally in the patients
right arm and breast and stilnulants were
given, but they only served to prolong a life
fast ebbing away. The desperate III an lived
exactly seven hours after the cap had exploded
At the sound of the explosion, Parsons, who
occupied the cell adjacent to Lingg's, was on
ms feet, his face pressed close to the bars of
his CELL and. i'll Il loud voice, he cried:
:, Give me one of those bombs. 1 want to do
the same thing.
Parsons was still shrieking out for COM
pnnion-piece to the l.ingg article when the
deputies hustled him down stairs and into tho
Jail office, where he and his fellow auarchists
were thoroughly scare he'd